Why Read and Write Fiction?

Please join me for a cup of coffee and discussion on the topic of reading and writing fiction. Speaking for myself, I read fiction to escape the grind of my sometimes crappy, overwhelming busy life.  I adventure into a novel every few weeks. Like most humans who sat around the campfire and shared legends and fairy tales, I’ve always enjoyed stories. My dad, a psychiatrist, liked people and shared about their lives but never gave away their identities.


Have you ever pictured your TV as a kind of campfire experience? After watching an episode, my husband and I talk about it. What did we like or not like? For the TV series, Billionaire, we admire the snappy dialogue and acting but can't relate to the characters. We stopped watching it. Good or bad, we choose how to be entertained, and it’s the same with books we read. We want to be taken out of our lives and into the lives of the protagonists. This means we have to like them.
Writing fiction allows us to entertain people.  As authors we invent characters to tell their story.  Coming up with ideas, and then crafting a realistic story is challenging and fun.  To captivate a reader, a story must unfold in real time with action, dialogue, and struggle all the way to the satisfying conclusion.


How about you? Why do you read or write?